


Squish

by Carol_Molliniere



Series: The Society of Weird Feelings [4]
Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Kissing, Platonic Relationships, also we get a mildly jealous Archer so, that's all there is to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 05:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12149415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carol_Molliniere/pseuds/Carol_Molliniere
Summary: There wasn't a word in the dictionary that described how Lavender felt for Griffin.





	Squish

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place after "It's A Long Story", but before "That One Betting Pool". There are some references to "Pining" too.
> 
> After this fic I'm gonna move on to the other Lodgers! I might take a little break, though, so don't expect too much so soon.

“Why do you always want to be around me?”

Lavender looked up from the samples she was examining. Griffin was staring at her from behind the rat cage separating his and her work. Almost self-conscious, Lavender tried to smile. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“I'm just saying, you could be working with Mrs. Cantilupe at this moment,” Griffin told her. “Not here, in the biology lab.”

“Oh, well–” Lavender gestured to the microscopes. “I forgot to tell Jekyll about our broken microscope in our lab.”

It was obvious from the look on Griffin's face that he still wasn't pleased. “You could have chosen a different table, though.”

“What, and leave you all alone?”

He rolled his eyes. “You're never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“If that's how you truly feel, then I can't let you forget it,” Lavender said. “You don't need to put up that facade of not needing anyone all the time – especially not around me! I've seen you at your worst.”

“Yes, well, what possessed me to seek you out that night, I don't know,” Griffin said, looking away.

She smiled cheekily. “is it because you trust me?”

He huffed. “Whatever.”

Lavender watched as he went back to work, examining a seemingly empty rat cage filled with squeaks. He didn't seem to truly be pushing her away – that was good. It did take a while for people to break old habits, anyway.

The question made her think, though.

Why did she want to be close to him all the time?

 

* * *

 

A good scientist always started with the known facts.

Lavender liked to be around Griffin – that was the fact. She felt an immense desire to know more about the man, to be close to him, to talk to him.

That...sounded an awful lot like a crush. In fact, that sounded like how she felt for Flowers, and she loved the woman.

So did that mean she loved Griffin too?

Her feelings for Griffin felt a lot different from her feelings for Flowers, but both were characterized by a need for closeness to the other person. So the problem was, what was the former?

She formulated a hypothesis: that these feelings were not at all the same as her crush on Flowers.

Moving on to observations, then.

 

* * *

 

Lavender encountered Griffin again in Doddle's lab, this time as she, he, and a few others were being asked to taste test some of Doddle's new confections. At the moment, Doddle was asking them to try a new kind of lollipop which changed flavor every seven licks or so. Several of them took the treat with eagerness after he informed them that he had taken care not to include anything they were allergic to.

Griffin popped his lollipop in his mouth, and Lavender licked her own. The first taste she got was peppermint. She looked to Griffin, and set her mind on what she needed for her observations.

She had to stare at his lips, wrapped around the lollipop and puckered as he pulled it out – she had to imagine them on her own lips, imagine how good the sensation might make her feel.

Oh, God.

The very thought of his lips on hers wasn't at all to her liking.

She took the now strawberry-flavored lollipop out of her mouth, and that was when she noticed Archer watching her from his place beside Mosley.

No, not watching; mildly glaring sounded more like it.

Before she could wonder to herself why exactly Archer was glaring at her, though, he caught himself and quickly looked away. His lollipop almost fell out of his mouth, but he caught that as well. Meanwhile, Griffin seemed oblivious to what was happening, instead continuing to suck on his sweet.

Well, that was odd – but no more so than what she and Cantilupe had once caught Helsby doing with his repair kraken. Lavender looked back at the space in front of her.

So she didn't feel excited about the thought of Griffin kissing her. Actually, it might have just made her feel a little strange for thinking such a thing. She thoughtfully put her lollipop back in her mouth, just as Griffin spat out his own.

“Ugh! Lemon!”

 

* * *

 

“Flowers? Can I ask you something?”

“Oh, sure,” Flowers said, looking up from a clockwork beetle. “What's the matter?”

Lavender twiddled her fingers together. “Do you know that feeling...where you want to be with someone, but you don't want to kiss them?”

Flowers blinked. “You mean you want to be friends with that person?”

“Not just that...” Lavender said. “That feeling where you're fine not kissing them, but you want to be with them and sit with them whenever you see them walk into the room, and you want to know everything about them, and you want to hug them...”

“...You lost me.”

“Sophia, come on,” Lavender sighed. “Surely these feelings are normal!”

Her companion put down her tools, and clasped her hands together. “I don't know about not wanting to kiss that person, but – you must really like that person, Lily.”

“I do.” Lavender looked at Flowers. “But I don't know what I want to do with hi – that person.” She blinked, and then her eyes got caught in Flowers's own.

Those bright eyes...she wanted those eyes to be locked with hers as she got pinned to a wall and kissed until she was dizzy...she wanted to see those eyes as soft, delicate hands ran down her skin and drove her insane...

“Lily?” Flowers asked, waving a hand in front of Lavender's face. “Lily?”

Lavender broke out of her reverie. “Huh? Oh, sorry.”

“You seem to be in an odd mood today,” Flowers told her. “Listen, I'm not sure how to help you with what you're feeling, but I think you should accept it. It takes a long time for feelings to go away once they're this strong – and it's good to like someone, anyway. Who knows, maybe you'll find a word for what you're feeling right now.”

Lavender looked at her for a little while longer, before nodding. “Yes, yes, thank you. I'll try to find out what I'm feeling, give it a name – that's what us scientists do with new phenomena, isn't it?”

“Science does not always accurately describe the matters of the heart,” Flowers said.

“Oh, Sophia,” Lavender replied. “You're always so romantic. Listen, I have to go – Cantilupe and I might have a breakthrough with the leviathan skeleton.”

“Alright.” Flowers waved a hand. “Tell me what you find.”

“I will.”

 

* * *

 

Alright, so she didn't think being explicitly romantic with Griffin was a good thing.

She didn't know it for sure, though – maybe it was all in her head. Maybe she needed to employ a different method to test her hypothesis.

Maybe she wouldn't know until she forced it.

 

* * *

 

She found Griffin the next night, drinking a cup of coffee in his room while poring over some notes. Lavender knocked on the open door, notifying him of her presence as she stood in the doorway.

“Do you mind if I come in?” she asked.

Griffin seemed to think about it a little, before sighing. “I don't think I could say anything that would stop you,” he said. “Go right on ahead, blabber my ear off if you have to.”

“Alright,” Lavender said, coming in and grasping the door.

“Actually, I was thinking of asking you about something,” Griffin went on, turning back to his notes. “I think I should start experimenting on bigger animals than mice. But I don't know where Jekyll would find such animals without getting his pretty little name in trouble, and so I want to know if you think experimenting–”

He cut himself off when he heard the door click, and he turned around to see that Lavender had closed and locked the door behind her. Griffin got up from his seat as she turned her head up to him.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

Lavender looked him in the eyes, unflinching.

“Kiss me.”

Griffin was frozen under her gaze.

“Wh-what?”

“There's something I have to know,” Lavender said, moving closer to him, “and I can only find out if you kiss me. Before you ask, I know how silly this sounds, and you've probably never seen me this way before, but I need to do this.”

He stared blankly at her, before swallowing. A strange look appeared on his face as he nodded.

“...Sure. Sure, alright,” Griffin said, as if in a daze. “You can, um...kiss me.”

Lavender was a little surprised at how quickly he had accepted these terms, but she collected herself and took a deep breath. “So...here goes."

She took a step closer, but Griffin didn't move himself, and soon she couldn't will her feet past the ten inches that separated them. Something that felt like a weird smile was probably plastered onto her face, and her hands had curled into fists.

“Well, what're you waiting for?” Griffin asked impatiently.

“I'm preparing myself!” Lavender said, her voice jumping an octave.

“You should have done that before you got here!”

“Well, I've never seen you that way before, either!”

“Why are you doing this, then?”

“Why did _you_ agree so easily?”

“Oh, for God's sakes–”

Griffin put a foot forward and cupped her face in his hands before closing the distance between them.

Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord.

Lavender registered how much his breath smelled like coffee, and how she had willed her eyes closed only three seconds after it had happened, and that he was actually trying to be gentle–

–she remembered Flowers's bright eyes, though, and she recognized that none of this felt right.

She pressed her hands to his chest, and just as she was about to push him away Griffin pulled back himself.

“...There, you happy now?” he said, his breath ghosting over her skin.

She wiped her lips on the back of her hand. “This was a mistake.”

Griffin took a step back, looking down at something below his desk. Lavender followed his eyes to see Eira curled up on a cushion, looking almost questioningly at her. They must have woken the cat up. Eira then stretched, and jumped off the cushion to circle around her owner's legs.

“I agree, this was a mistake,” Griffin said after a few seconds' silence. He used the heel of his hand to wipe off some lipstick that had been smeared on his lips. “Tell me you at least found out what you needed to know.”

“No, I didn't,” Lavender lamented, walking over to Griffin's bed and sitting down on it. “I can't bloody find out why I want to be with you so much when I don't even want to do romantic things with you! I just want to be close to you...but I can't tell if I want to be friends, or something different from that!”

“What?” Griffin asked, turning himself fully towards her. “That's what you made me kiss you for? Of all the – really?”

“Yes, do go on, you're making me feel much better,” Lavender remarked snidely. She then sighed. “I just thought that if I gave these feelings a name, I could be much happier about it, and I could give an answer to your question about why I want to be with you; because I don't know why I like being around you, I just do.”

She ended this statement by throwing her hands up in the air, and then she brought them back down in frustration. Griffin stared at her with wide eyes, while Eira sat beside his feet, meowing.

“You know, Lavender,” Griffin said, crossing his arms. “I actually don't care.”

“Huh?”

“I don't care about giving a name to your feelings towards me, whatever they are, or about the reason why you like me,” he went on. “The only thing I give a damn about is whether you like me or not at all, if I'm being honest.” His eyes turned down towards Eira again. “No one's ever said...that they like being around me.”

Lavender smiled up at him, before giggling a little. “That's only because you've got a bad temper,” she said. “But no wonder you were so eager to be kissed.”

“I – no!” Griffin's face turned red. “For your information, I've actually had sex before!”

“With who?”

“That's none of your business!”

“So someone just had pity on you?”

“Sod off!”

Lavender only laughed, in spite of her knowledge that she was only riling the man up more. Because she also knew that she had really made him happy, and that meant much to her.

 

* * *

 

There were rumors the next day that Lavender had gone into Griffin's room after dinner and didn't come out until late in the evening.

Which was actually true, but the assumptions behind what they were actually doing in that room were not. In fact, they were wildly different from what they had done – they had been discussing whether it would be ethical for Griffin to experiment on his pet cat, and then they had to calm Eira down when she looked as if she would jump out the window. They actually hadn't realized how long they had taken in there until Pennebrygg had given Griffin a mischievous grin the next morning, and Helsby had bombarded him with questions about things no child should hear.

Lavender and Griffin then had their work cut out for them denying the rumors that anything unprofessional had happened between them – sure, they had kissed, but no one needed to know anything about that. And besides, nothing had come of it. It was a bad time for Lavender to be so careless about staying in a man's room, though, especially as the Society was rife with rumors about who Lavender liked.

Lavender guessed she should be glad that no one had considered Flowers for too long, otherwise she would be too flustered to dispel repeated questions. Not like shutting up any gossip about her and Griffin was any easier, though – it was quite clear she liked the man and didn't hide it.

“I'm telling you, nothing happened between us last night!” Lavender said. “We really were just cleaning up after his cat when she did her business, after we were discussing scientific matters.”

Archer had his chin in one of his hands, leaning on an armrest in the common room, and now he waved his other hand. “No, don't worry, Lavender, I believe you,” he said, trying to smile. “I've been in the same situation before, if you remember, when I was new at the Society. If it's not true, I'm sure it'll die down eventually.” His eyes then darted away. “Yet I worry.”

Lavender tilted her head. “Worry about what?”

Archer seemed nervous to say, his smile growing more forced. His eyes looked all around the room except at Lavender, and then he suddenly put his hands down on the armrest. “So how's life?” he asked, his voice cracking.

“Archer, you're scaring me a little,” Lavender said.

“It's nothing!” he said, even as his voice broke some more. “Nothing you should be worried about – in fact, I'm more interested in what's going on in your life!”

She was doubtful, though, judging by the obviously half-assed smile on his face, and was about to question him some more, when Archer looked up as someone walked into the common room. Lavender turned around to see who else but Griffin, carrying a set of chemistry equipment and his notes. Griffin looked over and met Archer's eyes for two seconds, before they both looked away, and Archer kept his eyes on the floor while Griffin moved over to a seat on the other side of the room.

Lavender wanted to say something – greet him, maybe? – but then someone else walked in the room, and she turned to see Flowers, carrying a small box of clockwork parts. She felt her heart beat a little faster. Flowers smiled brightly at Lavender, and then looked to Archer, blushing a little.

“Archer, Lily, I hope you both don't mind assisting me with something,” she said. “I could use people looking over my work.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Lavender said, looking over the box. “I mean, I'm not experienced with engineering, but I'll do my best.”

“What're you talking about; you've lots of great ideas!” Archer looked at Lavender. “Besides, you're quite knowledgeable about animals.”

Lavender waved a hand. “About mythical creatures, not ordinary insects...”

“Oh, maybe I could make a monstrous beetle for you?” Flowers asked. “Frankly, I would like to have that as a small project.”

“But think of what Jekyll would say!” Archer joked, and Lavender and Flowers laughed a little.

Lavender's eyes fell on the other person sitting across the room from their group, though, and noticed that he was looking extra sour – as if he was turning his eyes away from them for a reason other than concentration on his work. She looked at him for a little while, before figuring out what to do.

“Oi! Griffin!” Lavender called, and Griffin looked at her. Then he looked just the tiniest bit stunned when Archer and Flowers looked over to him as a result.

“D'you want to sit over here with us?” she asked.

Griffin looked them over, before frowning. “Why would I want to sit near all of you?” he asked.

“Come on, you could use a little company,” Lavender said. “Just move the table near here and you're set.”

He stared at Lavender, before looking to Flowers, and then to Archer, before looking away. A light pink tinged his pale cheeks.

“If you insist,” he said. “It's not like I'm looking for people to spend time with or anything.”

“But you're using the common room,” Flowers pointed out.

Griffin blushed even harder. “Fuck,” he whispered under his breath.

“Come on!” Lavender said, and Griffin made the effort of rolling his eyes before finally moving the table closer to them. He did it a little quietly, a feat on his part, and then sat down beside Archer. He now tried even harder to look away, while Archer forced his smile and locked his fingers together in his lap.

Well, Lavender would have noticed the red on their faces, if she wasn't so preoccupied with the feeling of heat on her own face as Flowers adjusted her position and sat closer to her on the sofa she was sitting on, and she tried not to think once more about bright eyes and soft hands.

So she drove away those thoughts by looking at Griffin, just as he looked at her as well. His face said that he knew what she was trying to pull by getting him to sit closer to other people – but his eyes were bright, and even though they weren't as bright as Flowers's, they were happy as he was close to them.

Lavender liked the thought of him being happy and close to people.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> A squish is defined by Urban Dictionary as "a platonic crush, one where you like someone and want to be close to them, but not in a romantic way." But then again, you guys hadn't come here for word definitions - you came to be shown, not told.


End file.
